This invention relates to a gripping or chucking device for accurately, reliably and quickly gripping or chucking small workpieces having irregular shapes in order to work them.
To grip or chuck workpieces, especially small ones, having triangular, L-shaped, semicircular, trapezoidal or other sectional shapes, chucking surfaces had to be worked so as to be complementary to the contour of the workpiece, or V blocks or liners were used in combination.
With such conventional gripping devices for gripping small workpieces having various shapes, flexibility and work efficiency were poor. It was also extremely difficult to position a workpiece in parallel to or perpendicular to an X-Y table of a machine tool.
An object of this invention is to provide a gripping device which can reliably grip small articles having different shapes with a single gripping device without the need to work its chucking surfaces to a special shape that is complementary to the contour of each article or without the need to use V blocks or liners in combination, and which can position articles in parallel to or perpendicular to an X-Y table of a machine tool.